How to dominate your social campaign using micro-influencers

The how-to guide

We’re seeing people all over the digital world narrowing in on niche markets and achieving localized celebrity status through their social media accounts and blogs. If brands play it well, these influencers have the potential to revitalize organizational and business PR strategies.

Social media-influencers, more specifically micro-influencers, have become some of the most trusted sources for online brand endorsement. With typical followings of 10K to 100K accounts, their tight-knit audiences can be leveraged in powerful ways.

At a micro-level, these public figures typically exist on a regional, or industry-specific basis. With a bit of digging, by using hashtag searches, exploring suggested feeds, and messing around with some social listening tools, you will find an array of accounts that have vast followings within your industry. The beauty of reaching out to micro-influencers is that their rise on social media is likely a recent development, making them more inclined to being receptive when sliding into their DMs.

Once you establish your metrics, make note of your current social and sales standings. You’ll use these figures to calculate the impact of your influencer marketing strategy throughout and after the campaign.

2. Find out who has a voice

Build a list of public figures whose voices have the ability to resonate with your audience throughout your campaign.

Look through your existing followers

Do any of them have 10k-100k followers? If so, this is great news because by following you, they’ve already shown interest in what you do. This gives you a foot in the door when it comes time to make that first cold contact.

Do #Research

Do some research based on the hashtags that are relevant to your organization. For example, if you sell athletic wear, you might use hashtags like:

#fitness

#fitfam

#workout

#gymlife

#getoutside

@b.motiv8ed AKA Brandon Schram is an example of an influencer with a pretty powerful voice for having less than 100k followers. He is known for being a celebrity trainer, working with the likes of J-Lo, The Game, Prince Royce, among many others.

He’s very familiar with using the hashtags that are popular with his audience. This allows him to strengthen his brand within his niche, as well as attract others with the same interests. This tool will help you discover the people that can help share your message!

Build a list of relevent hashtags to your industry, plug those hashtags into google and each of the social platforms you plan on using. It might take you a bit of time and tweaking, but you’ll be surprised with who you stumble across.

Use online tools

There are a handful of reasonably priced/free tools you can use to find influencers that resonate with your market. This one is our favourite.

Buzzsumo has a feature that acts like an influencer directory. You can discover the people with social authority by using filters to narrow down your searches based on:

-niche topics

-hashtags and keywords

-types: such as companies, bloggers or journalists.

3. Now, slide away my friend

PR is all about building relationships. Don’t be afraid to begin mastering the DM slide (professionally of course), to boost your organization’s reach. Once you’ve done research on the influencer you want to collaborate with, send them a well-crafted message that you think they’ll relate to.

You can do this by applying traditional traditional PR tactics. Similar to how you would send out press releases to reporters, giving them a taste of what you would like them to write about. You can give influencers an idea of what you aim to achieve using their help. You should also provide reasoning for why you think they would be a good fit to represent your organization.

It’s imperative that you don’t come across as pushy or desperate. Your goal is to find a mutually beneficial arrangement that helps the both of you achieve your goals. If they want to be paid (which is probable), they most likely won’t take a huge hit on your marcoms budget!

4. Don't settle for just one

Since they’ve proven to be so effective (and cost effective) why not plan to have multiple faces pushing your campaign?

More is better. You can increase your potential reach by getting a handful of these social savants to become brand ambassadors. The best way to go about this is to give them a recommendation on when they should schedule content so that it all hits the market at the same time.

Micro-influencers are great for a groundswell approach, where the goal is to reach as many people as possible through different avenues, starting small and building up. This strategy allows you to quickly saturate the market with your messaging, brand or product. This is extremely helpful when increasing brand awareness.

Repetition can also be a useful tactic for marketers. A micro-influencer campaign ensures that the target audience is regularly exposed to the brand or product through multiple voices and channels.

5. Track, assess & repeat

It can't be stressed enough: Always track your outcomes!

Use your social media platform’s analytics tools, google analytics or any other tool you might have access to in order to measure how micro-influencer marketing contributed to your campaign. Go back to the metrics you selected as indicators of a successful campaign and determine the percentage increases and responses from viewers.

If your goal was to get people to your website, consider how these mentions may have improved your SEO rankings. Did your call-to-action page traffic spike as a result? How often did they follow through with the action?

Don't forget, PR is always about building and maintaining relationships through communication. Now that you have established a rapport between you and whoever you collaborated with, you should work to maintain a positive relationship. Be willing to help them out as well if they ever come calling!

Need some help breaking the ice?

We understand that the evolving world of PR and marketing can be overwhelming at times. We work with you to find the best solutions for your campaign needs. We specialize in finding the tools and tactics that allow your message to get into the hands that matter most to your brand.

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